TL;DR

UK immigration tribunal judges have been trained to use a restricted version of Microsoft Copilot to draft skeleton rulings, generate case summaries and check their decisions, as the asylum appeals backlog has nearly doubled to 104,400 cases in a year. Judges remain solely responsible for the final judgment, but the rollout marks the most substantive use of AI inside the UK judiciary so far.

Inside the Workflow

Training materials, first reported by The Observer, show judges are encouraged to use Copilot to generate a “case outline” indexing the parties’ evidence bundles, a “bundle summary” creating a timeline of events, and a list of issues in dispute that feeds into a decision template. After a hearing, judges — who are expected to deliver decisions within two weeks — can also ask the model to review a draft judgment against the evidence and flag omissions.

In a training video, Lord Justice Dingemans, senior president of tribunals, said the preparation work means “when you get to the hearing, you will be a better judge because you’re completely on top of the issues”. Critically, judges are instructed not to use AI for analysis or weighing evidence, and HMCTS says the tool focuses on transcribing dictated decisions in line with the Ministry of Justice’s responsible AI principles.

Context: Backlogs and Scepticism

The backlog is the driver. Asylum appeals have risen sharply, extending the time applicants spend in taxpayer-funded accommodation and hampering government deportation plans. Justice secretary David Lammy flagged the transcription trials in February, and Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, has argued publicly that litigants may eventually prefer faster, cheaper machine-assisted justice.

Not everyone agrees. Barristers and AI researchers have warned that current models remain unreliable and need close monitoring — concerns sharpened by several recent UK cases in which lawyers cited hallucinated judgments produced by consumer chatbots. The tension between speed and reliability is the defining trade-off.

Looking Forward

Legislation expected this autumn will streamline the appeals system, and AI workflows are likely to be formalised rather than rolled back. The immigration tribunal is effectively a live test case for wider judicial adoption: if Copilot-assisted drafting clears the backlog without producing high-profile errors, expect similar deployment across tribunals handling tax, benefits and employment disputes. If it doesn’t, the political cost of a single botched deportation ruling could set the entire programme back years.